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Norris McWhirter - founder of the Guiness Book of Records - has died aged 78. He was also a former British international athlete, and, of course, will always be associated with Roger Bannister and the breaking of the 4 min barrier.He was a friend and champion of Bannister's talents. Norris was the events announcer at Oxford on May 6th 1954, and also there competing as an athlete. He was a familiar face in British tv.
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Re: Norris McWhirter 78 dies
He was also an extreme right wing activist with associatons with radical right wing groups. I'll always remember him for sending me disgusting & gruesome pictures of dead children and women in Afganistan in an attempt to disuade me from going to the Moscow Olympics. -
Re: Norris McWhirter 78 dies
so since you disagree with his anti-EEC stance, among others, you choose to virtually piss on his grave before the dirt has even settled?
classy, Mark, very classy
If I remember correctly, his twin brother, Ross, was murdered by the IRA in the 1970s.Comment
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Re: Norris McWhirter 78 dies
Mark, you mean you have left and right wackos in your country too ?!
No knock on Norris Mc., none of my business. I always assumed he was A Friend of The Sport; hate to lose those regardless ( not irregardless ! ) of their political persuasions, left or right.Comment
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Re: Norris McWhirter 78 dies
>so since you disagree with his anti-EEC stance, among others, you choose to
>virtually piss on his grave before the dirt has even settled?
classy, Mark,
>very classy
If I remember correctly, his twin brother, Ross, was murdered by
>the IRA in the 1970s."
From an obit from the UK:
"His twin brother Ross was assassinated by the IRA in 1975 after he offered a £50,000 award for information about IRA atrocities.
Both brothers held far-right views on migration, Rhodesia, British membership of the European Economic Community and Northern Ireland.
They associated with controversial political movements on the fringe of British politics, notably the anti-EEC Freedom Association, which they founded."
So Mr. gm....how classy was it of him to attain my home address and write a letter to me accusing me of being a traitor for not supporting Thatcher's attempt to boycott the Moscow Games? Plus send the above mentioned photo's? And, where did I say I disagreed with his anti-EEC sentiments (for the record I do disagree).Comment
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Re: Norris McWhirter 78 dies
<<<<<so since you disagree with his anti-EEC stance, among others, you choose to virtually piss on his grave before the dirt has even settled?
classy, Mark, very classy>>>>>>
Easy there GM, take a deep breath and reread Mark's post. He is not "pissing on anyone's grave". The sad news of the gentlemen's passing was brought up and Mark is sharing a letter he received from the gentlemen and stating that gentlemen's self professed political leanings.
No major attacks happening. I'm sure Mark as well as us all were sad to here of his passing and surely feel bad for the family's loss of his twin at the hand of assassins many years ago.Comment
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Re: Norris McWhirter 78 dies
Note the last two posts happened almost simultaneously.Comment
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Re: Norris McWhirter 78 dies
Mark, I am with you 100%."A beautiful theory killed by an ugly fact."
by Thomas Henry HuxleyComment
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ditto from me.
So let's not have fight here !Comment
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Re: Norris McWhirter 78 dies
Thanks fella's. I thought I showed restraint, actually. Don't worry Steve, I've no time for Michael E. Lewis style rants on here.
(btw- started my first ever thread on letsrun yesterday and it's had 126 replies in 26hours; quite civilised discourse on the legal system, personal responsibility and drunk driving. Perhaps we should go over there more often to give it some class?! It's titled, "Kid gets wasted/dies. Mom sues Coors")Comment
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guess I'm the only one sick of politics intruding into this T&F place...Comment
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Re: Norris McWhirter 78 dies
Long obit in this morning's NY Times. Here's the URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/21/inter ... M/sxI97EtAComment
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Re: Norris McWhirter 78 dies
He sat near me for a couple of days at least of the Montreal Olympics just a year after his brother's murder. Seemed like a very nice man. (GH: Was he on the tour?)
His death is an occasion to correct something I said on another thread about tracksters who went on to governmental positions. According to the obituary in the Washington Post, neither he nor his brother sat in Parliament, though each stood unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate.
Finally, alkthough I represented the American athletes seeking to overturn the decision to boycott the 1980 Olympics, there was surely something to be said for not celebrating a festival of youth in the heart of a murderous regime.Comment
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